Tate Modern’s transformation continues with the opening of The Tanks on 18 July 2012 – the world’s first museum galleries permanently dedicated to exhibiting live art, performance, installation and film works. The launch is part of the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad.

The Tanks will be launched with a fifteen-week festival from 18 July to 28 October 2012 celebrating performance and installation art and the historical works that have shaped it. The Tanks are raw, industrial spaces which provide an anchor and home for the live art and film programmes which have previously been presented in diverse spaces around Tate Modern.

The festival will allow audiences to explore new developments in art practice and learning, see bold new work being developed by artists and engage more deeply with the programme. A major new commission and recent acquisitions will go on display for the first time and, for ten days during the festival, the programme will be created by and for young people.

In Tank 2, a rolling series of projects will address the history of performance, film and interdisciplinary work alongside newly commissioned ‘focus’ projects. In addition to three major discursive events, which involve presentations, debates and performances, strands of the festival include interventions programmed by and for young people and two mass participation events for visitors of all ages involving sound, performance and film.

The young people’s festival Undercurrent will be ten days of audio, digital media and performance rooted in London’s sub-cultures and includes events with Tate Collective, Rinse FM, Dubmorphology, ISYS Archive, The Orange Dot and David Kraftsow, W Project and Michael Barnes-Wynters: Dutty Lingo and artists such as Leo Asemota, Hetain Patel, Ruairi Glynn, Tracey Moberly and Jon Fawcett.

Over 40 established and emerging artists from across the world will be taking part, including:

Ei Arakawa (Japan)

Jelili Atiku (Nigeria)

Nina Beier (Denmark)

Tania Bruguera (Cuba)

Boris Charmatz (France)

Keren Cytter (Israel)

Tina Keane (UK)

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Belgium)

Liu Ding (China)

Jeff Keen (UK)

Anthea Hamilton (UK)

Sung Hwan Kim (Korea)

Rabih Mroué (Lebanon)

Eddie Peake (UK)

Yvonne Rainer (US)

Lis Rhodes (UK)

Hito Stereyl (Germany)

Aldo Tambellini (US)

Haegue Yang (Korea)

Entrance to The Tanks will be free but tickets are on sale now for the festival events.

The Tanks were originally massive industrial chambers containing oil that fuelled the power station and have lain unused since it was decommissioned in 1981. The opening of the Tanks is Phase 1 of the Tate Modern Project. The new building will be completed by 2016 at the latest.

The Tanks programme is supported by The Tanks Supporters Group and Sotheby’s.